Key indices trimmed gains in early afternoon trade. At 12:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 71.63 points or 0.19% at 37,362.30. The Nifty 50 index was up 18.05 points or 0.16% at 11,296.95.

Overseas, Asian stocks rose across the board on Wednesday as expectations that Beijing would implement stimulus to soften the economic blow from the Sino-US trade war helped Chinese shares rally.

China announced tariffs targeting more than 5,000 US products, worth about $60 billion, will go into effect on 24 September 2018. However, China will put a 10% tariff on some goods it had previously earmarked for a 20% levy. At the same time, China's commerce ministry said that it filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the US.

Beijing's announcement came after the Trump administration said the US will impose 10% tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, and those duties will rise to 25% at the end of the year.

US stocks came off earlier highs but still closed higher on Tuesday as investors shrugged off escalating trade tensions to instead focus on the robust economy.

Among secondary barometers back home, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.02%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.31%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative from positive. On BSE, 1158 shares rose and 1227 shares fell. A total of 149 shares were unchanged.

Cement shares were in demand. Ambuja Cements (up 0.74%), UltraTech Cement (up 0.38%) and ACC (up 0.06%), edged higher.

Grasim Industries was up 0.17%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

Most sugar shares rose. Dwarikesh Sugar Industries (up 4.65%), Empee Sugars and Chemicals (up 4.65%), KCP Sugar & Industries Corporation (up 3.07%), Dhampur Sugar Mills (up 2.23%), Simbhaoli Sugars (up 1.22%), Balrampur Chini Mills (up 1.12%), DCM Shriram Industries (up 0.73%), Rana Sugars (up 0.57%) and Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar (up 0.21%), edged higher. Triveni Engineering & Industries (down 0.61%), Shree Renuka Sugar (down 0.75%), EID Parry (India) (down 0.83%) and Sakthi Sugars (down 3.45%), edged lower.

India will consider various proposals to support the sugar industry, including incentives for exports, at next week's cabinet meeting, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan was quoted by the media as saying on Wednesday, 19 September 2018.